Ravilious in Pictures: Excerpt

Eric Ravilious: Train Landscape (1939)

In the previous painting we saw a train from the viewpoint of the Westbury Horse; here the perspective is reversed, with the chalk figure framed by the window of a railway compartment. We take on the role of passenger, alone in the corner seat, looking up to see the horse appear on the hillside, as it does when a train approaches Westbury station.

In this instance, though, the eye is quickly drawn back into the empty compartment, to the huge number on the door. Yellow, shaded black, this massive numeral tells us our place. We’re in third class, and the seat cushions, though exquisitely patterned with diamonds and stars, are starting to sag. These and the leather window strap, stretched out of shape by countless hands, tell us that this compartment is real and much used. Keep looking and more details appear, from the tab handles of the roller blinds to the patch of pale sunlight on the woodwork in the top left of the painting. The diagonally striped draught strips on either side of the door are both functional and decorative.

Is it significant that the compartment is third class? Ravilious worked easily alongside the printers at the Curwen Press and occasionally drew industrial workers and farm labourers, but he was equally comfortable among naval officers, or dining at the Café Royal. Rather than being an homage to the working man, the splendid ‘3’ probably reflects his own economical travelling habits.

Until his appointment as a war artist nobody minded how Ravilious travelled, but in November 1940 the War Artists Advisory Committee found itself with a dilemma. With some artists claiming for first class travel and others for third the WAAC stepped in; Ravilious, with a salary of £325 for six months’ work, should travel third. As an officer holding the King’s Commission, however, Captain Ravilious was not permitted to travel third class. ‘I think,’ wrote a committee member, ‘We must let him go First.’

Ravilious travelled constantly by train, and it is fitting that he added to the canon of railway art this inimitable work. Where Turner’s ‘Rain, Steam and Speed’ brilliantly conveys the violent drama of a transport revolution and Augustus Egg’s ‘Travelling Companions’ the intimate experience of travel, Ravilious focuses on the magical space of the railway compartment itself, a man-made environment in which every detail is designed.

But this story has a twist. Restorers working on ‘Train Landscape’ recently discovered that the Westbury Horse had been glued over something else, and closer examination revealed the Wilmington Giant hidden behind it. It seems that Ravilious made two paintings, both aboard trains on the Eastbourne to Hastings line, but was not happy with either. So his wife Tirzah took the best parts of each and skilfully cut and pasted them together.

This is an excerpt from 'Ravilious in Pictures: Sussex and the Downs', published by the Mainstone Press. The book features twenty-two of the artist's finest watercolours. There's an order form here.

'Ravilious in Pictures' vol 1 - Out Tomorrow!

No it isn't like having a baby, but seeing a book in print for the first time is rather thrilling. I took this on our kitchen table in what I thought was a bright beam of autumn sunshine. About half a watt, it turns out. There are more pictures on the Facebook page, and an order form here.

Totterdown Press: Cider in the City

Now in its third year, the Totterdown Press makes a fine, dry cider from a secret blend of bittersharp and bittersweet cider apples gathered from orchards in Somerset and Gloucester- shire.

This year we ran into competition from Orchard Pig, which has been supporting Somerset growers by trading orchard maintenance (planting and pruning) for fruit. At least the apples have gone to a good cause.
Anyway, we still collected enough to press about thirty gallons of juice using a Fruit Shark scratter and small-ish press. A certain amount of rainwater may have found its way into the mix, but I'm sure that's all to the good. No rodents in there yet, but there's still time...

We pressed during Front Room, the annual Totterdown art trail. Fun to chat with passers-by, though we should have remembered that the weather is always terrible that weekend.

Now we wait... This year's cider should be reaching its peak in time for the launch of The Naked Guide to Cider. But that's another story

Banksy in Bloodhound Tagging Shock

Hakskeen Pan, Northern Cape, South Africa, 2011. In the shimmering desert heat technicians gather around a hangar on the edge of a huge salt flat. A tractor is hooked up to the trailer parked inside and, as the world watches via every imaginable medium a fantastic vehicle is pulled into view.

It's long and sleek - more rocket than car. The glossy flanks are decorated with sponsors' logos. 1000 miles per hour is the goal today, a third again faster than the current world land speed record. Can it be done? More people are watching than saw men land on the moon in grainy black and white. 'A momentous day,' viewers are told in a hundred languages...

But what's this? As Bloodhound emerges fully into the desert light, there's a sudden stir of activity. The tail is decorated with a Union Jack, but someone has done something to it. Someone has got into that heavily guarded hangar close to the Namibian border and stenciled in green over the red, white and blue... a tortoise.

Well, why not? This is Bristol, after all, and wouldn't promoters of Bloodhound (the car Wing Commander Andy Green hopes to drive at over 1000mph) be delighted to receive the blessing of the city's most famous son? As it is, they seem, in these gloomy days, to be attracting the attention of everyone from the Duke of Kent to primary school kids in their thousands.

Why so? One speaker at the launch today (just along the dockside from the ss Great Britain) recalled that, the year he left school, he watched the moon landing on TV and saw both Concorde and the new Harrier Jump Jet at an air show.

There was a sense then that we could engineer a better future - a view that seems rather naive in the post-Kyoto age. There's something slightly nostalgic about Bloodhound's Dan Dare futurism and the charismatic pilot-driver who will risk his life to dazzle and inspire millions.

River Cottage Perry - A Second Glass

I went by the Days Cottage stall at Bristol farmers' market on Wednesday to find that they were selling some youthful perry - the very perry, as far as I can make out, that Hugh F-W suffered pain and injury producing.

Helen was keen to point out that Days Cottage workers are not routinely bombarded with pears. For some reason the TV people thought the nation's viewers would enjoy watching the star of the show being battered in this way, but in real life people are kept well out of the way of falling fruit.

But what about the perry? Well, it's young, green, a bit sweeter than I normally like, but with an exuberant something - not a fizz, exactly, but a kind of spring in the step. It'll be interesting to see how it develops.

I had a message from Nick Mann of Habitat Aid - a specialist nursery that promotes biodiversity - about Scotts Nursery in Merriott, near Crewkerne. Since at least 1850 Scotts has sold a fantastically diverse range of fruit trees, but the recent death of manager John Scott Wallis forced the celebrated nursery to close. Nick Mann writes:

One consequence of this tragic tale is that all their stock is now being auctioned off, with potentially catastrophic results for a number of rare traditional varieties which Scotts alone sold... Ian Roger of R.V. Roger, one of our key suppliers, has very kindly agreed to help to persuade the auctioneers to identify, re-categorize, and hopefully sell us some of the rarer trees. Let me know if you would like to be involved.

Win new Eric Ravilious book!

Think you know the paintings of Eric Ravilious? Well, if you want to test your knowledge and perhaps win a signed copy of Ravilious in Pictures: Sussex and the Downs, follow this link and see how you fare in Tim Mainstone's Ravilious challenge.

Dave's Perry and Severn Cider

I enjoyed watching Hugh F-W playing Gloucestershire Roulette under a perry pear tree last night. Just so you know, those pears are hard and they hurt, especially if they happen to fall twenty feet.

Earlier I was visiting Nick and Tom Bull at Severn Cider in Awre, across the river from Days Cottage. In case you were wondering, Awre is pronounced 'Arrr'.

They make a proper drop over there - strong and fairly dry, with a good clean flavour. The sparkling cider is particularly good. I've been a fan for a while, so it was a treat to meet the makers, who were busy pressing apples for this year's cider. Big bags of Kingston Black and crates of Dabinett promised great things, and there are some unusual apples in the mix too - the venerable Hagloe Crab and rare Box Kernel.

Their perry is excellent too and they've just started doing a new bottle-conditioned product. The region between the Severn and the Forest of Dean is legendary perry pear country, and the Blakeney Red, named after the neighbouring town, is their staple ingredient. Brown Bess, Huffcap and Malvern Hills add character. Nick pointed out that the latter is also known as Moorcroft and Stinking Bishop - which is where Charles Martell's famous cheese gets its name.

I've already mentioned Days Cottage and Oliver's. There's an incomplete (and slightly out of date) list of perry producers here, with Orchard's, Gregg's Pit and Gwatkins among the best. Gwatkins was featured on Oz Clarke and James May's TV show.

Tom Bull took me for a swift half at the Railway Inn at Newnham-on-Severn - a place of pilgrimage for cider and perry fans. And a lovely pub it is too. Meanwhile, it seems Severn Cider has a bit of a fan club (thanks to the National Association of Cider Makers for the pic)...